Trivia Tidbits

Welcome back to Trivia Tidbits. I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted this feature but even I hadn’t realised that it’s been nearly 3 Years since I paid any attention to it. For all those fans out there (who have probably long since forgotten about me now) I wholeheartedly apologise for my tardiness. Anyway, for those of you out of the loop, this is a little compilation of 10 movie related facts that I always find interesting. So without further ado, this weeks are…

1: In the film “Hollywoodland” in 2006, Ben Affleck stars as George Reeves – the actor who played Superman/Clark Kent in the 1950’s TV show “Adventures of Superman“. This makes Ben Affleck the only actor to portray, in one form or another, both Batman and Superman as part of a major motion picture.

2: Kevin Spacey dedicated the Oscar that he won for Best Actor in “American Beauty” to Jack Lemmon. Spacey has said in interviews that he based his performance of Lester Burnham on Lemmon’s C.C. Baxter in “The Apartment“. Appropriately, there is a family connection between those films: Lemmon’s love interest was Shirley MacLaine, whose real-life sister-in-law, Annette Bening played Spacey’s wife.

3: According to Sylvester Stallone in the DVD commentary, Rocky’s trademark outfit of the black snap-brim fedora and the leather coat came from a local hand-me-down store in the neighborhood where they were filming.

4: Al Pacino was director Bryan Singer’s first choice for the role of Dave Kujan in “The Usual Suspects“. Pacino passed on the role and has since stated that this is the role he regrets passing on the most. Chazz Palminteri eventually got the part.

5: When Philip Seymour Hoffman was asked who his acting idols were, he named Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Newman, Meryl Streep and Christopher Walken. He managed to work with them all apart from Day-Lewis (which, incidentally, before his death “There Will Be Blood” was the only Paul Thomas Anderson film Hoffman hadn’t appeared in and had Day-Lewis as the Oscar winning lead).

6: Tom Hardy joined Drama Centre London in September 1998 and was taken out early to work on Steven Spielberg’s TV show “Band of Brothers” in 2001. One of his classmates at drama school was Michael Fassbender. They both appeared in “Band of Brothers” and Hardy stated that Fassbender was the best actor in the school.

7: Bradley Cooper cited Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci’s character in “Goodfellas“) as an influence on him providing the voice for Rocket Racoon in “Guardians of the Galaxy“.

8: Michael Keaton was offered the role of either Peter Venkman or Egon Spengler in “Ghostbusters” but turned down both parts, which went to Bill Murray and Harold Ramis, respectively. He was also originally slated to play Jeff Daniels’ character in Woody Allen’s “The Purple Rose of Cairo” and actually did film some scenes, but Allen decided it wasn’t working and replaced him with Daniels. He had the same fate in “Mystic River” when he was cast in the role of Sean Devine (Kevin Bacon’s role). He filmed some scenes but he and director Clint Eastwood had creative differences on the project and Keaton opted to leave the film.

9: Helping an alien friend escape earth and return home is the premise of Steven Spielberg’s original film, “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial“. The proposed sequel, “E.T. 2: Nocturnal Fears,” had evil aliens come to earth and abduct the children. Then, E.T. would help his friends escape and return home. Of course, the second film hoped to capitalize on the first film’s success.

10: At the time of his death in 1966, Walt Disney’s last words were “Kurt Russell”. Before dying of lung cancer, he wrote the actor’s name down on a piece of paper. Kurt Russell was a child actor then, who had just signed a 10 year contract with Disney. But nobody, not even Russell himself, knows why Walt wrote his name down.

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So there you have it. 10 esoteric Tidbits to masticate on. Some you may know. Some you may not. If you have any thoughts, stick your donations in the comment box…

(To look back at all my previous editions of Trivia Tidbits just click here.)

Interesting trivia. I always thought that the “Kurt Russell” dying words of Disney were simply an urban legend, and it is not true. It kinda is true, I suppose, but I don’t think there is much mystery there since Disney was talking/writing about his next project(s) and thus potential actors.
Interesting about the role of Dave Kujan in the Usual Suspects and Al Pacino. The role would have really suited him since I picture him now in Insomnia and in Heat. It is also amazing that Gabriel Byrne thought till the last moment of the Suspects filming that he was the leading man – aka the Kyser Soze of the whole plot. Otherwise, he would not have consented to star hehe.

Yeah, it would make more sense for Disney to just be considering future projects and Russell as a new recruit but who doesn’t love a good bit of mystery.

As for Pacino, I’d already heard that he regretted passing up a role in Goodfellas the most but I can totally see him as Dave Kujan. That said, I wonder if Pacino’s star presence would maybe have hindered the almost indie feel of the film. He may have been too big the role and as much as I love Al, the film is near perfect as it is anyway. I’m a huge fan.

Yeah, I am a big fan too, and you are absolutely right, the presence of Al Pacino would have been very distracting, especially considering there is Spacey there. Low-key actors such as Baldwin and del Toro contribute to the film having this “hidden secret” quality to it.

At this time, Spacey wasn’t a huge draw. This was the film that cemented his ability as a quality actor. To be fair, most never went on to bigger or better things but Spacey and Del Toro stood out and made the most of this opportunity. I totally agree that it had a “hidden gem” quality. It blew the socks off many audiences and the more we speak of it, the more I realise it’s been far too long since I’ve seen it. There was time when it was it included in my personal top 10 of favourite films. Admittedly, that was 20 years ago which, in itself, is a scary and sobering thought. It’s a timeless film.

Glad to hear you took something from this, sir. This feature was a huge success for me back when I was more involved with blogging. I do aim to be doing more though and get the feature back on track again.

Why thank you, sir. I know you were one of the fans of this feature and I let it slide for far too long. To be honest, I had no idea that I left it so long until I was looking back on my posts. 3 years, man? Where has the time went?